Winter is a special time, where athletes can compete both indoors and outdoors on the track, as well as over the roads, trails, and cross country. Since the beginning of 2023 alone, PDC athletes have competed in 6 countries and 8 states, over all five of those disciplines, plus triathlon. While competition, like our local weather, is just starting to heat up, here are some of PDC winter quarter highlights.

Indoor club record breakers Lewis and Aneno

Smith has already PR’ed indoors in the mile and outdoors in the 1500m.

INDOOR TRACK
From the very first race in December, club records fell like timber this indoor season. Newcomer Ashley Lewis set a new club best of 1:31 in the 600m while winning at Boston University, then posted a new 800m indoor record in her first race of the new year. Lewis went on to compete in her first USA Indoor Championships finishing fifth in her heat in Albuquerque. Not to be outdone, training partner Aneno Susan countered by breaking the 800m indoor club best not once, or twice, but three times on the way to a final resting spot of 2:03.07, not far off of her lifetime outdoor best of 2:02.16. Boston University proved to be a productive venue for the team overall, as Carmen Mejia broke her own 1000m club best at the Valentine Invitational, and Miles Smith set a new all conditions personal best of 4:01.87 in the mile.

OUTDOOR TRACK
The first few weeks of the season featured many promising signs for the competitions to come. Brianna Bourne, Faith Reynolds, Aneno Susan, and Miles Smith have already set lifetime bests over 1500m at least once, while Benedikt Bünz and Sarah Gayer posted strong season openers in that same event. In the 5000m and 10,000m, Kayla Knapp, Izzi Gengaro, Sarah Johnson, Weronika Matuszczak, and Chris Olley have started the season with encouraging efforts in these longer distances, highlighted by a 15:56 debut in the Stanford Invitational 5K for Knapp, and a nearly 30 second personal best for Gengaro in the 10,000. Aneno and Lewis have dropped down for strong early season 400m efforts, and combined with Bourne and Reynolds for a Heat 2 4x400m victory and new club best at the Cardinal Classic.

ROADS
At the Project 13.1 race in New York State on March 25th, Matt Leach posted a 63:04 half marathon, just seconds from his lifetime best. Earlier in the season, he set a new course record at the Chichester 10K in England as well, the same day as Chris Olley outdistanced the field at the Kaiser San Francisco 10K in Golden Gate Park. While PDC enjoyed a particularly strong day at Kaiser, running 1-2-3-4-6-7 in the women’s 10K, while Jen Odenheimer and Matt Lenehan both earned runner-up honors in the half and Jason Intravaia fourth place. Odenheimer (4th) and Lenehan (2nd) both raced again at the Napa Valley Marathon Half, where Kayla Knapp shined with a 1:14 win, after capturing the Kaiser 10K in 33:25. Over the full marathon distance, Amy Schanz lowered her lifetime best to 2:38 in Houston, earning 15th place overall, while Tom Tayeri again finished among the top 55+ athletes at the Tokyo Marathon, where he ran 2:42 (before winning his age group at the Carlsbad 5000). Cody Goodwin and Ayla Granados also posted wins on the roads during the winter, while Trevor Halsted earned fourth at the NorCal 10 Miler on the PAUSATF Grand Prix.

TRAIL / CROSS / MULTISPORT
Rafal Matuszczak checked off a bucket list competition, venturing to the Transgrancanaria festival of races. He took fifth in the Vertical Kilometer competition before earning fourth in the 24K. Benedikt Bünz contested both the 10K and the 3K distances at his hometown cross country championships in Hamburg, Germany on the same day, taking 4th in the 3K and 7th in the 10K. Kevin Bishop earned a top 30 placing in the pro field of the Oceanside 70.3 triathlon, and Brianna Maroney was top 10 with an age group win at the Lavaman Olympic Distance event.